


Mole

by Trillian_Astra



Series: in another life [1]
Category: The Mentalist
Genre: Alternate Universe, Dark, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-28
Updated: 2012-12-28
Packaged: 2017-11-22 18:47:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/613047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trillian_Astra/pseuds/Trillian_Astra
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cho has a friend with some unusual interests. The CBI knows this friend as Red John. Cho brings him information on the investigation.</p>
<p>(written for a prompt at comment_fic on LJ. prompt was: Cho as Red John's mole)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mole

It started when he got a phonecall from someone he hadn't seen for a while, someone from the Army. They hadn't been especially close, not really, but they'd been friends of a sort during basic training. Then one had moved on to the Rangers and the other hadn't.

“Cho, I need you to do something for me,” he'd asked. Then he'd mentioned a name, a name that Cho recognised as that of the new 'consultant' who'd been helping solve cases. “I need you to watch him. Get close to him.”

“Why?”

“So that I know what he knows.”

He reassures Cho that he has a plan; that one day he'll share the details. He says that this is serious, that he wouldn't ask if it wasn't important.

Cho thinks about it, decides that really, it can't hurt, and says he'll do it.

His friend laughs softly, and says, “Thank you.” 

Months pass. Cho watches the consultant, Jane, carefully. They become friends, of a sort. Now and again his friend sends an email, and Cho replies, passing on anything he's learnt.

When Cho investigates his first Red John murder, he has a feeling. The feeling is confirmed later when his friend calls him. “Did he see it?” he asks quickly, meaning Jane.

“Yes.”

“It was you,” Cho says. It's not really a question, but his friend answers anyway. 

“Of course,” he says, like it's something obvious.

The months turn into years. Cho solves murders and kidnappings, and watches Patrick Jane for his friend. He knows more of the plan, now. His friend has told him of his ambition to demonstrate to the world how wrong they've been. He's going to open their eyes, he says, and one day Cho will not have to lie to his colleagues, his boss, his girlfriend. It will be beautiful, his friend says.

(His friend does not like the fact that Cho has a girlfriend. She's a distraction, he says. She'll just take his attention away from the plan. Cho stands firm.)

The CBI takes Todd Johnson into custody, and charges him with multiple counts of murder. Cho gets a call from his friend. “The man you have in custody... he needs to die.”

“What?”

“He needs to die. Soon, in his cell. I need you to do this for me.”

“Why him?”

“He knows something. I can't let him talk. It would ruin everything.”

Todd Johnson is found burning alive in his cell, and dies later in hospital, secrets untold.

Weeks and months pass, and cases come and go, and the CBI identifies Red John's mole in their ranks. Cho finds out when he walks into the office and Rigsby and van Pelt draw their guns on him.

“Hands where I can see them!” Rigsby shouts. Cho sees LaRoche walk out of Lisbon's office, and he knows.

Rigsby puts him in cuffs, and Lisbon walks up to him. All she says is “Why?” 

“It's part of the plan,” he says.

He sits in the interrogation room, Jane sitting opposite, and he thinks about the irony that he should end up here, in the same room where he's interviewed hundreds of suspects. Jane hasn't said anything yet, he's just looking at him. Studying his face for clues. Jane leaves the room without saying anything. It occurs to Cho that he's probably gone to Lisbon, and they're probably theorising about him right now.

Later, they transfer him to a cell, and he's left alone to sit and think. At some point an officer shows up with food and water. Cho looks up and recognises his friend's face under the uniform cap. He asks his friend what he's doing here.

“Checking up on you, of course.”

“Are you going to kill me?”

His friend frowns. “Why would I do that?”

Cho just looks at him.

The next morning, Jane comes down to his cell. 

“I thought we were friends,” he says plaintively.

“We were,” Cho answers. “He's my friend too.”

“You were helping me. You were helping me catch him.”

“I'm not going to tell you who he is.”

“I was afraid you'd say that.”

Cho is sentenced to jail for the murder of Todd Johnson. He confesses, so there's no trial, no jury. Just an agreement with the DA before he's shipped off to prison.

His friend breaks him out.


End file.
